Out of a crew of 885,
the White Star Line employed just 23 women to work aboard ‘Titanic’. With the
exception of the Turkish Bath Attendant, Two woman Cashiers from the à la carte
restaurant, a masseuse and the Third class Matron, they were all stewardesses.
With such a ratio of female crew to male, it would perhaps, be natural to assume
that as a number of male crew survived the whole compliment of women did. Sadly,
this was not so. Three of the women perished, Mrs. Lucy Violet Snape;
Stewardess, Katherine Walsh; Stewardess and Mrs. Catherine Jane Wallis; Third
Class Matron, perished.
Perhaps the most famous ‘Titanic’ crew woman was Miss Violet Jessop, a First
class Stewardess. She was on board all three of the ‘Olympic’ class ships when
accidents befell them. She was a Stewardess on the ‘Olympic’ during the
collision with H. M. S. Hawke in 1911, also a Stewardess on ‘Titanic’ when she
collided with an iceberg and subsequently foundered in 1912, and she was serving
as a Nurse, (V.A.D) when the ‘Britannic’ struck a mine and sank in the Aegean in
1916. The last one had the most potential to be fatal; the Captain of the ship
had her still going “full ahead” in an attempt to drive her into shallower water
and Miss Jessop’s boat was sucked in and she has hit upon the head by one of the
Propeller blades.
Violet was born on October 2nd 1887, in the Argentinean Pampas, to Irish
parents: William and Katherine Jessop (nee Kelly). She was the first of nine
children, of whom six survived; Violet, William, Phillip, Jack, Patrick and
Eileen. Upon the death of their father, his widow moved them all to England.
Katherine was then engaged as a Stewardess with the Royal Mail Line, (1903) and
the four boys were sent to an Orphanage whilst Violet was left to care for
Eileen (who was 15 years her junior). After a while, Violet and Eileen moved to
a Convent in Kent, where Violet resumed her studies. In 1908 however, any hopes
of further education for Violet were dashed b y her mother’s failing health. She
was signed on with the Royal Mail Line and took her mother’s place as the
family’s sole breadwinner.
Violet devoted her life to stewardship, her career was to last 42 years
(spanning from 1908 to 1950) serving with 4 different companies.¹ She married,
but it was a failure, with the couple splitting up soon after the event. (The
failure would most likely have been due to her grueling work schedule) Sometime
around 1930 she began to write her autobiography, under the pseudonym “Constance
Ransom”.
She never had any children of her own, but she had a talent for caring. She was
given a baby to hold by an Officer (who is thought to be the Sixth Officer,
James Paul Moody);
“Before I could do anything, young Mason (Moody) hailed me and held up
something, calling out as he prepared to throw it, “Look after this will you?”
And I reached out to receive somebody’s forgotten baby in my arms.
It started to whimper as I pressed it to me, the hard cork surface of the
lifebelt being anything but a comfort, poor mite.”
He nieces also recall her love of young children and babies. When she retired
she moved to a secluded country cottage where she lived out her days keeping
chickens. She had Survived a Lung haemorrhage, Black Scarletina, and so many
other ailments during childhood, it is perhaps a wonder she survived to live
through two shipwrecks and two world wars, but some how she did, and during her
career she cared for hundreds upon hundreds of person and gave so selflessly.
She very rarely complained at all about her lot in life, just soldiered on with
it. She left behind a Memoir rich with anecdotes and details of ships which are
so useful, for example she was one of the few ‘Titanic’ survivors whose
published memoirs take note of the conditions around her (like the lights
through the portholes). She is also one of the few crew to have their memoirs
published, and as a Stewardess has given a window into a totally different
world, a long day in day out world of Servitude. And she bore it tolerably well.